Williams High Speed SS Refurbishing project!

HIGH SPEED (SS) 1986 Williams

High Speed (SS) 1986 is manufactured by Williams in Illinois USA and this is a pinball that I never had played before.
The Getaway: High Speed II which is the following pinball on the car chase theme I have been played several times on
pinball events and competitions the last year. This pinball have similar layout as High Speed, one big difference
is that it has a ramp on the left side of the playfield which goes up to a Super charger.

In September 2008 there was a advertise on the internet for a High Speed. There was no price set, instead you
where asked to call and suggest a price. I call the seller and gave him a price suggestion and also get more
information about the pinball machine. The flippers where not working and there was some wear on the playfield but I did
not understand how much wear there was since the person not was so involved in the pinball machine. The pinball had been
on a youth club and then in storage for the last three years. I asked to think over the prospect and also
pictures should be sent to me. But after some hours I called back and said that I would like to see the pinball
live and that I was interested to buy it. Meanwhile another price suggestion had been given close above mine
but the person was not so interested so we decided that I have the first call.

Me and my son now six years old went to see the High Speed, the pinball was in a heated storage and what we
could see was that there was some extensive insert wear on the playfield and some of the plastics where broken.
I noticed that there was no drill holes from security bar and the backglass was in good condition - no paint
loose except for a small area above the left kicker. The displays was nice and shiny - bright light. The
side art of the cabinet was in pretty good shape with minor scratches and everything underneath the playfield
looked visually Ok. The boards was clean without any burned parts - no acid from batteries.

I will mention that I was and looked at a Williams High Speed in the beginning of 2008 but it was in so bad
condition so it could be considered as a pinball only good for spare parts - there was a lot of rust on
playfield parts so it must have been held in a moisture storage for a while. It was completely dead and a lot
of dust on the playfield. I left the seller with the pinball since he required to high amount of money - the
playfield might have been of interest today!

When High Speed was installed at my home I started to clean and polish the legs with Autosol as I always do.
My best friend Thomas helped me to carry it down into the pinball room in the basement. We had to split the topbox
from the cabinet since we had bad memories from carrying the CFTBL. We reconnected the topbox and the cabinet
and put in a new fuse 2,5A Slow Blow on the Flipper power board. The right flipper worked for 2-3 times before
the fuse blow again. I suspected the solenoid on the upper right flipper to be bad since the EOS switch was not
able to be activated when flipper was fully raised. I discovered that the solenoid was melted in the tube where
the plunger move. I read that the Flipper power board also supplies (50V) to kickback one of each side of the
playfield and for the kick back on the left outlane. This make sense that the bad flipper solenoid can be the
bad dog since all these units do not work when testing them manually with a ball.

Have already after two days in my ownership bought new insert decals and new center target plastic, but
my biggest concern for the moment is the wear on the playfield.

Notes: "High Speed" was the first machine to use automatic replay percentaging. It was also the first to have a multiball jackpot that
grew and held-over. High Speed was also the first machine to use Williams' System 11 hardware. Steve Ritchie has said:
"It was based on a true story. I was actually chased by the cops at 146 mph in my 1979 Porsche 928." Ritchie credits Larry DeMar with
parts of the design, but DeMar isn't credited for design on the playfield, just software.

"Dispatch this is 504 - suspect got away!"

ARRIVAL

My best friend Thomas is disconnecting the cables between topbox and cabinet. Oh, My boy is really keen on to play Williams
High Speed.

Williams High Speed is prepared to be carried in too the pinball room.

BOARDS

Fuse F2 was gone when I bought the pinball and when I put in a new one the flippers worked for 2-3 times before the fuse blow.
This fuse is located on the Flipper power supply board, in the topbox.

Main board, System 11 CPU board - no acid from batteries and the board Seems to be in a visually good shape.

Sound board. The backgroundmusic was not working but all other sounds works perfect - as signal horn - speach.

Power supply board.

Label with a description of the fuses for Williams High Speed in the topbox.

In the picture to the right we can see the sound-ROM for background sound and in the picture to the left is the
Sound ROM Revision 1.

ROM IC, is ROM 2 a prototype ROM (PROTO4)?

Master Score Display board.

PLAYFIELD

Upper part of the playfield. The red prism which shall be in the traffic light was found in the cabinet. There
is a extensive insert wear in front of the center targets.

The area at kick out hole.

Middle part of the playfield.

Lower part of the playfield. Also here can extensive insert wear be found, today I do not know if I will manage
to improve this by paint touch ups - New insert decals is ordered, some kind of improvement will be done, but what?
The future have to show this.

Underneath the playfield.

CABINETT

The front of the cabinet - no drill holes from security bar.

Label with the serial number for mine Williams High Speed - 541-183705.

The side art on the side of the cabinet is in pretty good shape - some minor scratches.

Inside the cabinet.

INITIAL PROBLEM

Williams High Speed is working but the ball will not be shoot out from the kickers which is situated on
each side of the middle playfield, neither the kick-back on the left outlane and the flippers is
working. When I manually moved the flipper linkage it was not possible to open the EOS switch.
When I disassembled the flipper unit I discovered that the solenoid had melted and the plunger
could not move freely inside the coil sleeve. The plunger could not reach the coil stop and that
why the Switch was not able to open and cut the high voltage line. This explain why the F2 fuse
on the flipper power board is broken. New coil and EOS switch is ordered and will be replaced.
It will be exciting to see if everything will work after the change of parts.

Here we can see that the flipper link can not open the EOS switch which cut the high voltage in the solenoid
when fully extended.

I also noticed that the 2,2 mF capacitor which is soldered on each EOS switch on the flipper units
to decrease the sparks was soldered on the solenoid - maybe it make no difference but
they should be soldered on the EOS switch which the picture on the right shows.

Here is the phenomena that soldering point breaks over time due to all vibrations who occurs during
play.